


Barrier

by JoAsakura



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-07
Updated: 2012-05-08
Packaged: 2017-11-05 00:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the calm and the storm</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Scene: Standing in the narrow foyer between the lift and Shepard's door, Kaidan fidgets. They are two hours out of the ruins of Thessia, and no one has spoken to Shepard since the war room meeting.

~~

ONE

~~~

"EDI, Shep in his quarters?" He asked the air, rocking on his heels.

"Yes, Kaidan." EDI's voice purred over the comms. "You do not need to request entry if you do not wish. Shepard authorised full access for you around the time you began leaving your toothbrush in his bathroom."

"I hate that you know that." Kaidan sighed. 

"Then I will not tell you the other things that I know, Major." he swore EDI was smirking, and took a deep breath, touching the access panel on the door.

He was half-expecting to find a pile of shattered furniture in the middle of the room, or at least Shepard drunk. But not.. not this.

"Shep?" Kaidan asked softly, the door shushing closed behind him. The room was dark except for the dull orange light of the armour locker's interface, and the twitching blue glow rolling off of the Commander's bare skin. 

"Kaidan." Shepard blinked, but the barrier didn't falter. "..hey."

Kaidan lowered himself to the floor, sitting crosslegged across from him. "Barrier meditation? Vyrnnus used to make us do that, then shoot a rubber round at you from behind." He laughed, a little sheepishly at the memory, shaking his head.

"Samara taught me. Thought it might come in handy someday." Shepard murmured, not quite looking at Kaidan, rather, some spot on the floor between them. "It was either this or find someone to beat the shit out of, and I care about our crew too much." He added. Kaidan could see his hands trembling, fidgeting as he spoke.

"Shepard.." Kaidan reached out for him, fingers brushing the edges of the field, static electricity dancing against his skin.

"Don't! Do NOT try and tell me I did everything I could on Thessia." Shepard snapped, slapping his hand away as the barrier sparked and shuddered. "I.."

"Ok. I won't." Kaidan cut him off in turn, and was gratified at Shepard's aggravated noise before the man made eye contact with him. "I.. you know, before I met you in person... I was so excited to hear I was going to be serving with you." He got up, slowly removing his uniform. 

"Because of Elysium?" Shepard asked with a scowl. "And _why_ are you getting undressed, major?"

"Not because of Elysium. Well, _partially_ because of Elysium." Kaidan replied, toeing off his boots. "But mainly because I thought- here is a guy who is going to finally make people not terrified of human biotics."

Shepard's eyebrows flattened across his face. Kaidan was sure if the Commander had been a cat, his ears would have done the same. "And how did *that* work out?"

"You are the scariest goddamn person I have ever met in my life." Kaidan lowered himself back to the floor, metal uncomfortably cold against his bare skin. Activating his own barrier did little to relieve that, but he saw Shepard's face shift through a hundred tiny emotions. 

"Thanks. I think." Shepard made an annoyed face at him, that softened as Kaidan took his hands. He could feel Shepard's warmth, even as the two fields sparked and shuddered against each other. Shepard shivered a little, watching the light. "Ok, give. What..?"

"Shh. Close your eyes. So, I've heard that asari biotics can tune their powers to to their lovers'... it's supposed to be..." Kaidan said softly, fingers twining with Shepard's as he tried to match the tempest of the other man's powers. Shepard was a vanguard, a chaotic force of nature on the battlefield. Kaidan had trained as a sentinel, always to find that centre of control and calm. If he had to visualise his powers, they would have been deep, still waters, and all that. Now, they were an ocean, quickening at the wind rolling over it, but drawing the down the lightning that danced from Shepard's skin to quiet the the storm.

"Have you been into... Joker's Fornax... ah... " Shepard tried weakly for a bitter joke, but it died off on his lips with a sigh. 

"Let me in, Shepard." The energy was a thousand electric kisses across their skin, Kaidan thought as he felt Shepard match his breathing. In the BAaT training, teens had groped each other, awkward and desperate in the dark. Occasionally they'd found new... and creative... ways to use their powers. But this... this was different.

There was nothing awkward as they fell into the synch. It felt as natural as the echoed beating of their hearts, and it made Kaidan wonder why they hadn't done this sooner.

A safe place for just the two of them.

He pushed Shepard back against the bed, never breaking contact as tiny sparks of lightning danced between them. Shepard moaned softly against his mouth, and his tongue tasted like the air right before a thunderstorm.


	2. Chapter 2

Blue sparks danced across Shepard's metal floor as the Commander's leg hooked around Kaidan's waist and drew him closer. Fingers still twined, Kaidan grinned, pushing Shepard's arms over his head, tracing the veins and twitching tendons back down towards his shoulders.

Faint ridges under the skin, cybernetics and microframe implants and Shepard shuddered, just a bit, as Kaidan's hand slid across his shoulder to cup the back of his head as they kissed again. Delicate, dangerous territory, that vulnerable spot at the base of their skulls where the amps jacked into their nervous systems.

The barrier guttered and flared as Kaidan's fingers brushed the amp. It was a tiny thing compared to some, custom built for a perfect fit, even the jack engineered to sit seamlessly when Cerberus had rebuilt the Commander's broken body. He could feel it tingle beneath his touch, and Shepard shiver beneath him.

He understood because even as Shepard traced the edges of Kaidan's own jack, it sent wash of pleasure/panic up his spine. He nipped at Shepard's lower lip, worrying it gently between his teeth as it shook through him. Kaidan could feel Shepard's pulse beating hard with that same sensation, in time with his own, rapid breaths rising and falling in harmony.

A biotic was trained to protect that spot, more private than any other spot on their bodies. To give access to it was unimaginably intimate. But the thought of it helped Kaidan reassert the calm below the storm burning against his skin. To know that in this place, wrapped in the blanket of their shared power, they were safe together.

Safe, but awkward. Always awkward together for at least a few minutes every time, trying to discover in weeks what were years' worth of ticklish spots, no-fly zones and "definitely pass go, collect 200 credits" parts. 

They were not awkward now.

The flickering light from the barrier gave Shepard's smile a faintly manic sheen, teeth glinting as they wrestled for a moment with the Commander coming out on top, trailing static-edged kisses down Kaidan's belly. "God, John.. " Kaidan whispered, fingers threading through Shepard's hair as the other man's stubble scraped sensitive flesh. "Christ.."

Shepard went down on him, with a little laugh that quickly turned into a startled sound. He pulled away, rubbing his cheek against Kaidan's shaft with another laugh. "Holy hell, it's like licking a battery." 

"Is that a bad thing?" Kaidan asked. Shepard's laugh, a shy, rare creature, was infectious. They both shook with giggles that abruptly ended as Shepard's mouth caught him again.

"Not at all." Shepard murmured, eyes overbright and never leaving Kaidan's as he set about devouring him. Teeth and tongue and shivering electricity and it felt as if the storm was going to swallow him whole.

"Shepard.. John.." Kaidan gasped. "Can I..?" He wondered dimly if EDI was going to have words with them later. In the lightning stutter of the barrier's glow, the duller orange lights on Shepard's armour locker started to spark and dim. The metal floor felt as if it hummed beneath them, and Kaidan dragged Shepard back up to his mouth with a strength he didn't know he had.

Ozone and musk. His own taste on Shepard's tongue as they ground together. "God, yes. Please." Shepard growled against him.

It was as if they had always been together, Shepard sliding down on him with a moan. They fit perfectly, Kaidan thought. As if Shepard's barely-controlled chaos had been rebuilt, redesigned for just for him.

Somewhere across the room, a datapad left on the floor crackled and hissed before dying in a spectacular little explosion. Tiny flicks of electricity danced across the floor and Kaidan felt the calm in him surge and break.

Shepard might have been the storm roaring above him, but he was going to damn well drag them both under. Just on the edge, the sound of his own pulse like the ocean roaring in his ears, it was clear to Kaidan that neither of them could maintain the barrier any longer, not like this.

"Let it go.. let it go, John." Kaidan gasped out, and there was a moment, a flash of blinding blue and shared tension and need. And in that moment, everything simply... released.

It was several minutes before Kaidan felt like he could breathe again, his heart still hammering in his chest. Shepard sprawled on top of him, solid and warm, before sliding to Kaidan's side so they could look up at the stars spinning past overhead.

The room was dark, save for the dim light of the fishtank on the other side of the room, and very quiet. The armour locker's interface sputtered for a few fitful minutes before finally resetting, and the datapad across the floor made one final, pathetic pop.

"How do you feel?" Kaidan asked, when he was sure his voice wasn't going to break, or he wasn't going to dissolve into hysterical giggles.

"Better." Shepard said, sounding slightly surprised. "Calm." He added after a moment of reflection. "That was kind of a dirty trick, Major Alenko."

(I will be your centre and your shield. I will calm your storms.) Kaidan thought as idly stroked Shepard's hair. 

But all he said was "And that, Shepard, is why I'm here."


End file.
